Pierre PoilievreParliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and to the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member for Québec must answer to this: on July 15, 2004, the Bloc Québécois transferred $17,071.20 to the local election campaign of the member for Québec. The very next day, that same candidate transferred $17,071.20 to the Bloc Québécois. That is an example of the in and out system. How does she explain that?

...there is no doubt that an order to produce documents is not being fully complied with, and this is a serious matter that goes to the heart of the House's undoubted role in holding the government to account.

The Prime Minister must put an end to this charade. Will he order the immediate tabling of all the documents on the costs of his bills?

Mr. Speaker, let me at the outset, on behalf of all members of the House, welcome back the leader of the New Democratic Party. We may spar on issues from time to time, but I have great respect for him and his values.

We also respect the Speaker's decision of yesterday. We have stated that we believed we had provided the information requested. We appreciate the ruling and we will be working very hard to comply with it in the days ahead.

Mr. Speaker, I thank all my hon. colleagues for the welcome back. It makes it hard for me to ask some of these questions.

What we need to see is some leadership. The courts have ruled, Parliament has spoken and the Speaker has spoken. When will the Prime Minister respect the ruling of the Speaker and ensure that the real cost of his legislation is tabled before the House? It is a reasonable request being made by all Canadians. He has to take some responsibility for these—

We respect your ruling, Mr. Speaker, and we will be working to comply with it in the days ahead. The Liberal member for Kings—Hants has presented a motion to the House about having a committee look into it and report back. We will be working very hard to comply with that measure.

We will not be pushed away from the fundamental priority of Canadians, which is jobs and the economy. We are working tremendously hard on the budget to provide more hope and more opportunity. We have seen the creation of some 460,000 net new jobs over the past 18 months because of solid economic leadership.

Mr. Speaker, the problem is that Canadians are having an increasingly difficult time in being able to trust the Prime Minister, who routinely hides the truth. We increasingly are finding out about that here. We have seen a disregard for transparency. We even have the celebration of ministers who have doctored documents to hide the truth. This is bothering a lot of Canadians.

Canadians are having trouble trusting a government and a Prime Minister that would let his campaign team fake invoices and break election laws.

When is the Prime Minister going to step up, fess up and clean up his cabinet?

Mr. Speaker, we have said that we will be working very hard to comply with your ruling.

We remain focused on the priorities of Canadians, jobs and the economy. In every part of my riding and every part of the country, these remain the priorities of Canadians.

We will be bringing down a budget in a few short weeks. The single priority in that budget is the creation of jobs, the creation of hope, the creation of opportunity. That is the priority of Canadians. They do not want an unnecessary election. They want us focused on creating jobs for them and not trying to get new jobs for ourselves.

Mr. Speaker, we have yet another example of wasteful spending by the government for Conservative propaganda. Treasury Board documents show it plans to spend $4 million in one week to advertise the 2011 budget. That is over $35,000 for every waking hour of the week.

The Conservatives will spend more in one hour on self-promotion than a person in my riding makes in an entire year. Four million dollars would buy 4,000 medical scans for waiting Canadians.

Mr. Speaker, as I am sure the member opposite noticed, this question was just asked about five minutes ago.

The Department of Finance routinely has allocated to it some money to inform Canadians about benefits in the budget and other steps taken by the Department of Finance with respect to benefits for Canadians.

The budget this year is scheduled for March 22, so there will not be that much time left in the fiscal year. I anticipate that a good part of the money will not be spent and then it will be returned to the consolidated revenue fund.

Mr. Speaker, this is not a government, it is a propaganda machine. Just look at all the money being wasted to put up signs. A doorknob is changed and a sign goes up. A doorbell is repaired and a sign goes up. A sign has probably already gone up to announce the upcoming installation of another sign. The government is going to blow $4 million on an ad campaign on the budget.

How many hospital beds, how many nurses, how many people can we take care of for $4 million?

Mr. Speaker, unlike the Liberal government in the mid-1990s, we will not balance the budget in our country by taking money away from hospitals and schools. That is what Liberals did. They did it dramatically. They did it unilaterally. They did it without consultation.

It resulted in fewer doctors in Canada, especially in rural Canada. It resulted in closed hospitals across the country. It resulted in teachers being laid off, all done by the Liberal government of the 1990s.

Mr. Speaker, the average worker in Madawaska—Restigouche earns just over $26,000 a year. The former so-called integrity commissioner received hundreds of complaints and resolved none. When she resigned, the Conservatives gave her just over half a million dollars. She resigned and stayed at home, yet she is getting more than the average worker will earn in 20 years.

How can the Conservatives show such disregard for Canadian workers and pensioners?

Stockwell DayPresident of the Treasury Board and Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway

Mr. Speaker, our priority is to protect our workers. In this case, the government sought legal advice. We followed that advice. I believe that within the hour, the individual my colleague referred to will appear before the committee, and that is the appropriate place to discuss the situation.

Mr. Speaker, it would take 20 years for the average worker in my riding to earn as much as the former integrity commissioner received in a single day, that $500,000 she received for quitting, not working.

The minister claims he is trying to recover the $500,000 in hush money he gave her to cover up this obvious Conservative sham. Why did he give her the $500,000 in the first place? What is the Prime Minister trying to hide?